So this is the new year.
AND I AM SCREAMING!!!!
Everything’s fine.
Dear Readers,
I expected to end 2023 by turning in my first draft for the third book in the Out in Hollywood series. Spoiler alert: I didn’t! I stressed out and also caught an annoying cold and anyway it’s all fine. It will be fine!
Lately Instagram has been like, hey go to Threads and check out these posts. And every post they recommend me is like the worst writing/publishing/etc. advice I have ever seen. And normally I just roll my eyes but some bad takes hit me hard while I was struggling to draft, and I just want to say — please, if you see bad takes on Threads, a place that seems somehow built for bad takes, take a lesson from my mini-breakdown about something that was ultimately not true for anyone but the people who posted it and remember a lot of dingdongs feel they have a lot of wise things to say. So if Threads or any other Hot Writing Takes make you feel bad this season please remember to ignore them or roll your eyes or screencap and send to a friend like, can you believe this dingdong.
Anyway now that I’ve said dingdong more times than I expected to, I wanted to tell y’all about two exciting events I have coming up!! Let me preface this with: no, I’m not sure if there will be more events for At Her Service! I hope so, but I’m still looking at timing, etc., so I will share if/when I add anything else! I will also for sure be at the Tucson Festival of Books in March, so I hope to see some of you there.
First up, I will be at Skylight Books in Los Angeles on Monday, February 19, at 7pm PST. Los Angeles: join me! I would love to see your face! Sometimes I think there is a mistaken impression that after a few books, authors are no longer excited about their events, but I still always am. I’m going to be in conversation with the incredible Mackenzi Lee and I am very excited about this!
Next, I’ll be at my hometown bookstore Left Bank Books in St. Louis on Saturday, February 24, at 4pm CST. St. Louis: I would love to see YOUR faces! Hometown events are always extra special. I will be in conversation here with the badass Gabe Montesanti and I cannot wait to chat with her!
A note that to me this newsletter is mainly NOT just about promo and such; I love sharing my actual human thoughts with all of you actual humans. That said, At Her Service is out in less than two months and I am GENUINELY EXCITED for all of the stuff I’m doing, etc. So that’s that! I like talking about it! I will still talk about human things! Wait, BOOKS ARE HUMAN THINGS!
Anyway, you humans are great. Below, I have some great advice from excellent human Julie Buxbaum!
xoxoAmy
Consumption
Reading
Absolutely devoured Katie Williams’ My Murder, could not put this one down.
Also Reading
My friend Britta recommended The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black, and even though I am not much of a history or science person, this book is a beautiful look at how we ourselves would not be standing here if not for the end of the dinosaurs’ era. It made me feel weirdly more at peace about whatever is to come due to our climate crisis. I also googled a lot of prehistoric creatures while reading this and my algorithms have gone absolutely haywire.
Applying/Moisturizing
My friend Jess gave me this lip treatment set from Butter because she liked her own so much and I am all for it!! A light balm! A scrub that’s in a tube and not a little pot that you have to dig around in with your grubby little finger!
Wearing
I think Snag are the best plus size tights, and if you don’t already know this, I recommend checking them out!
Get Your Ask On
Today we’ve got advice from Julie Buxbaum, author of Year on Fire and The Area 52 Files.
I'm worried all the cool ideas and tropes have already been done! Should I quit my manuscript?
JB: No! There are no new ideas! Ok, fine there are a few but the vast majority of books all involve playing in the same sandbox with most of the same sand toys. The key is to make your sandcastle better than the other sandcastles! Did I push that metaphor too far? Sure! Sorry! But the point is when writing a novel, your biggest concern shouldn’t be whether you have come up with some “big idea” that no one in the history of the world has ever thought of before, but instead whether you are delivering on the promise of your idea. Is your novel an amazing sandcastle? Does it have kickass turrets? Maybe you’d found a way to pump in water and build a moat? Maybe your castle isn’t even a castle but is a log cabin? Or maybe you made a meta sandcastle? The point is get your hands dirty, play in the same sandbox everyone else does if you can’t find a new one (I promise it’s okay, really, though you might want to wash your hands after) and make something you’re proud of.
If you have any questions about writing, publishing, revising, genres, querying, being on submission, etc., reply to this email and ask! Your question may be featured in an upcoming newsletter!
At Her Service is coming in February!
(And it’s on NetGalley now!)
Remember, if you order from the amazing indie bookstore Skylight Books, you will receive these EXCLUSIVE and ADORABLE stickers!
(I will also have stickers AT the Skylight event, as well as the Left Bank Book event!)
A sweetly sexy, thoroughly modern new novel about single life, social media, career goals, and making the bold move to grab your own happiness—and write your own love story.
Max Van Doren has a wish list, and a great career and a girlfriend are at the top. But despite being pretty good at her job as an assistant to one of Hollywood’s fastest rising talent agents, she has no idea how to move up the ladder. And when it comes to her love life, she’s stuck in perpetual lust for an adorably perfect bartender named Sadie. Her goals are clear—and Max has everything but the self-confidence to go for them. Even her mother seems to assume she’ll be crawling home to her childhood bedroom at some point . . .
When Max’s roommate, Chelsey—an irritatingly gorgeous and self-assured influencer in plus-size and queer spaces—offers to sponsor her for a new self-actualization app, Max gives in. If she can’t run her own life, maybe an algorithm guiding her choices will help? Suddenly Max is scoring big everywhere, and her dreams are achingly close to coming true. But when one of Chelsey’s posts reveals Sadie’s part in the app’s campaign, Max is poised for heartbreak on all fronts. Tired of the sponcon life with its fake friends and endless selfies, Max realizes that to have true influence, she’ll have to find the courage to make her own, totally authentic way in the world.
“Spalding brings her twentysomething protagonists to life in this romance that delivers on both the heroine’s self-actualization journey and her happily-ever-after. A must buy” —Library Journal
It’s really cold today in Los Angeles and I am really being a baby about it!